NordFo konferens 2024
Keynotes
Linda Mannila
AI in crafts education – balancing tradition and innovation
Bonnie Cramond
Creativity – How might we recognize and nurture it in ourselves and others?
Søren Harnow Klausen
The role of craft in a balanced and contemporary education
Craft as a school subject is currently in search of its identity, trying to forge a role for itself in contemporary education. In its traditional form, focusing on techniques for processing materials and producing artifacts, it is under risk of becoming marginalized due to strong societal trends like academization, digitalization and the declining need for manual and physical skills. Current educational theory also tends to concentrate on the development of cognitive and verbal skills, despite its recognition of the importance of practices and embodiment. The idea of Bildung – motivating students to develop and “form” themselves in an ongoing encounter with the world – is widely endorsed as an educational ideal, not least in the Nordic countries. But it has likewise been interpreted in ways that privilege reflection and discussion over the practical and material aspects of human life. The subject of craft has been developed to accommodate these trends, widening its scope to cover technology and design, blurring the distinction between craft and art, and emphasizing its contribution to cognitive learning goals. This is both understandable and necessary. Craft has an unrecognized cognitive, aesthetic and creative potential, and the subject must respond to technological and societal trends – including the growing use of AI – to remain relevant. However, because genuine Bildung is concerned with all domains of human activity and requires a balanced approach to education, it is still important (and perhaps even more important than before) that students become acquainted firsthand with materials and manual processes. As the experience of concretely producing and shaping something is central to human wellbeing and personality formation, craft can also in this way contribute significantly to Bildung.
Hantverkshälsningar
Lee Esselström
Kvarkentröjan – hantverk med lokal anknytning, med miljön i fokus
Kvarkentröjan är ett av mina senaste samarbetsprojekt, ett stickmönster framtaget tillsammans med lokala stickare för Hantverkets hus Loftet och Kvarkens världsnaturarv. Jag jobbar mest med ny formgivning med rötter i historien, av inhemska naturmaterial och med traditionella hantverkstekniker, gärna på ett nytt sätt. Att inspirera och få fler att våga prova på nya hantverk är viktigt för mig, för att nå ut med hållbara värderingar och få fler att hitta välmående i vardagen med hjälp av hantverket.
Luke & Allison Johanson
Slöyd Experience
Slöyd Experience är en unik och innovativ ideell organisation baserad i Louisville, Colorado, som arbetar för att ge barn och ungdomar en autentisk och lärorik upplevelse. Genom den enkla handlingen att ”arbeta med händerna” syftar Slöyd Experience till att främja fullständighet i utbildningen och övervinna nuvarande luckor i det amerikanska utbildningssystemet.
Grundarna Luke Johanson och Allison Johanson berättar hur och varför de har implementerat Uno Cygnaeus och Otto Salomons ursprungliga idéer om pedagogisk slöjd i dagens USA.